Chapter 13

"I was just bony hands as cold as a winter pole. You held a warm stone out new flowing blood to hold. Oh, what a contrast you were to the brutes in the halls. My timid young fingers held a decent animal."

"I don't need a babysitter." Isaac mumbled, shuffling his feet around on the hardwood floor of the bedroom he was occupying in Derek's loft. He'd only been given less than an hour's notice that Carmen was coming along with Stiles and Scott so he rushed to clean up his room before she could see it. Her room was always so neat that he would have felt completely embarrassed if she'd walked in and seen his boxers hanging off his desk chair. He didn't even have that many things to mess the room up besides his clothes, but somehow things just got disorganized.

The room was a lot plainer than she had expected, but it was also a lot darker too. The walls were painted a dark blue but he had a couple of lamps to brighten everything up. She'd never been up to his bedroom before so she didn't really know what to expect. "I'm not babysitting you. Just think of it as me coming over to hang out or something." She replied quietly, setting her bag down on the floor next to his bed. The full moon was supposed to rise in an hour and she didn't know what she was supposed to expect from him. When she was with Scott on the full moon it was almost as if nothing happened to him unless he wanted it to.

"I still think it's babysitting." He shook his head, still eyeing her nervously as she sat down on his mattress. It really shouldn't have been different than any time he had been in her room, which was all the time. But somehow it was. He was afraid that there would be something about his room or even himself that she didn't like and that it would scare her away. He didn't know why he still had that fear, but it was unlikely that it would ever go away. She laid back onto his pillows and took a book out of her purse. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. "Is that for English?"

He climbed onto the bed and pulled her over towards him so that she was sitting in between his legs. She leaned back onto his chest and felt his heart beating against the center of her back. "Nope. I'm just reading it." Now she had that look of concentration on her face that he loved to watch. He'd always find himself getting distracted from paying attention to something just by seeing her paying attention to something. He wrapped one of his arms around her waist and raised his other hand to caress the hair at the crown of her head. She felt the calming touch of his fingers brushing by her forehead and she smiled faintly then leaned back farther into his chest.

"You read too much." He knit his eyebrows together, kissing the side of her face to see if he could take her mind off the book. That scene was all too familiar for the both of them.

"Maybe you read too little." She remarked softly, making a chuckle rise from his chest. The first rule of the first moon: don't have sex. They both knew that, but it seemed that only she wanted to adhere to it. The full moon just made him more needy. "So did you really watch Power Rangers today?" She asked him as she turned one of the book's pages.

"Yeah, it was cool." He didn't seem too interested in talking about that right now. "Can I turn the pages?" He just wanted to feel the paper of the book beneath his fingers and he didn't want to feel completely useless to her. Once the full moon came up he knew that he'd be searching for a memory to anchor him. For some reason it was the simple memories with her that made him feel the most human. He thought it was dumb to be scared that he'd hurt her because he always told himself he was in control. But he couldn't help but ask the "what if?" and that made him a little bit uneasy.

"Um, yeah. Sure." Nobody had ever asked to be her page-turner before. He'd just turned into a puppy. She looked up at him and noticed how his eyes would jump from looking at her to looking out his window, waiting for the full moon to get into view. "You'll be fine." She squeezed his forearm reassuringly, smiling at him. He swallowed a hard lump in his throat and lifted his hand from her stomach to hold the end of the page she was reading. "Page." She called softly, making him jump slightly like he had been concentrating on something else. He turned the page for her and felt the rough paper run underneath the pad of his thumb.

"Sorry," He mumbled quietly, taking in a deep breath. He just couldn't think about anything except the full moon now. He was so scared that it would hurt more than the other times and that he wouldn't be able to control himself. "So did Scott really say that he thinks you could control my shift?" He asked her, making her stop reading.

"Yeah, he did." She nodded, closing the book. He was too jittery for her to focus and she didn't want to ignore him for the sake of reading. Isaac let out a sigh of relief and held his head backwards, looking up at the ceiling. That was good. That was really good. He trusted Scott's judgement and that was enough for him to relax.

"Do you think you can do it?"

"Mmhm." She nodded, turning her head to look at his bedside clock. Twenty minutes until the moon rose. He groaned and tightened one of his fists, trying to get the sudden flush of pain to ebb away on its own. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." He got up from the bed and started to pace around the room, trying to get his mind off the shift. He had to anchor himself before it even started otherwise it would already be too late. He ran his hand through his hair and gnawed down on his lip while she couldn't do anything but stare at him in confusion. "I'm fine, I'm fine..." His voice started to crack and he started fidget with his hands. He yelped in pain as he started to feel himself rip apart and he tried his best to not give in at that very moment. This pain was different than before...normally it was manageable but now it was unbearable.

Derek had told him that the light of the full moon would help his internal wounds to heal, but he told him that it would hurt more than any other shift he had experienced. He just had to hold onto his humanity as tightly as he could.

"You're cute." She mused, twirling some of his curls around her fingers as she stared at his face in deep thought. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he laughed softly, looking up at her. When their eyes connected he felt a cozy warmth surging through his body. "You're cute and I love you." He felt her hand leave his hair and touch his cheek instead.

"I can honestly say that nobody's ever said that to me before." He nodded in approval of her comment, making her throw her head back in laughter. She let the reality of his words sink in and the smile slowly started to disappear from her face.

"Well then they're obviously idiots." Her voice was suddenly serious as she observed the features on his face. He was a lot more than just cute. She thought he was nothing short of absolutely beautiful. He was so caring and so sweet that she couldn't imagine anybody ever hurting him. She couldn't wrap her mind around how somebody so deserving of love could have been treated so cruelly.

"What do you mean by that?" He knit his eyebrows together in confusion, holding her gaze again.

"I mean..." She sighed deeply, stroking the side of his face with her hand. He smiled in ecstasy and wished that he could stay frozen in that moment forever. "That anybody who doesn't love you is stupid. I mean that I wish I could spend all my time with you and that if I didn't have you I probably would have gone crazy by now. I mean that I love you, Isaac Lahey. I love you, I love you, I love you." She laughed softly, leaning her head down to kiss his forehead.

His muscles were starting to numb and he could feel the animal starting to emerge from his body. "Isaac..." Carmen said quietly, walking over to him. He emitted a low whine from his chest and when he looked over to her his blue eyes had turned into pools of liquid gold. Her hands started to shake as she placed them on his face and closed her eyes, hoping that some sort of instinct would tell her what to do. "Isaac, don't..."

She could feel his hands on her back, and her body froze as his claws extended from his fingernails, resting on the surface of her skin. They were waiting to rip. Waiting to shred. Waiting to pierce through her soft flesh. "Get away from me..." He growled harshly, knowing that he'd surely have the power in him to kill her if he lost control. "GO!" He yelled, trying to drive her away. She stayed, gripping her hands against his cheekbones as she lifted his face to look into his eyes. She'd never leave him. Not like this.

"I know it hurts, Isaac. I know it does." She had tears in her eyes as she felt how much agony he was in. The second half of his transformation would happen as soon as the moonlight touched his skin, and she knew that there would only be a matter of moments for her to connect with his human side. She cradled his face in her hands and looked into his golden eyes, giving him something to hold onto. As long as he looked into her eyes, she had him in her control. "Listen to me. Don't give in. You've done it so many times before. Just don't let this be the only time you can't control it. Isaac, don't do it."

His sharp canines started to jut out and he was looking into her eyes with pain written all over his features. "I...can't..." He breathed out, wanting to hold her closer to him but knowing that he couldn't because he'd end up cutting her with his claws. He was a monster. He'd end up killing her if she stayed any longer. "Carmen, go...please." He whimpered, feeling his eyes start to water.

"Don't shift." The tone her voice had taken on commanded him to bottle up his pain. It sealed him up from the inside. "Control yourself." Trying to motivate him to do things himself wasn't going to help her cause. She had to give him commands. That was the only way for it to work. He would have ripped her to shreds if she hadn't pushed him. Any reservation she had about using her ability on him was now dead and gone.

The shining blue of his natural eye color bled into his gold irises and she felt his claws retracting against her back. His breathing was still ragged but it started to slow to a natural pace and his head fell against her shoulder in exhaustion. There was something about him that felt...different. He'd only been able to shift halfway, but it was enough to heal his internal wounds. He hadn't felt this strong or powerful in weeks. He was finally at his best.

"How do you feel?" She asked him uneasily as he began to pace around the room once more, flexing his fingers and balling his fists.

"Good. Really, really good." He smiled widely, rolling his muscular shoulders back and forth. There was a healthy flow of adrenaline kicking through his system and he felt like he could run twenty miles without feeling winded. He was in total control. "And by the way, you smell really, really nice..." He murmured softly, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. She laughed and gently nudged him away before he could lean his head down to kiss her neck.

"Peter and Stiles are downstairs..." She tried to pry his arms away from her but he whined needily and turned her body around so that she was facing him. "Are you sure this is a good idea right now?"

"I'm pretty sure that it's a good idea...I don't know about now, though. But it's a really good idea." He smiled coyly, lifting her up so that he could place her onto his bed. She trusted him to stay in control if they went any farther, but some part of her was still a little bit scared.

"Oh God!" Stiles interrupted Isaac just as he was about to put his mouth onto Carmen's. "Jesus Christ, keep it in your pants!" He would have told them to get a room, but then he realized that they already had one.

"I'm pretty sure the door was closed for a reason." Isaac sneered, rolling off of her so that he could stand up. Stiles gulped as Isaac's broad figure towered over him, staring at him intensely. "Can I help you?"

"Um, Derek wants to know why you haven't been answering your phone for the past fifteen minutes. Also, I need Carmen." He rattled off quickly, looking over at her to signal that she needed to start moving quickly. Isaac's brow furrowed at the mention of his phone and he suddenly realized that it had probably gotten stuffed into his closet when he was cleaning the room earlier. "Lydia found a body, and she's sort of having a panic attack. You gotta help me calm her down. Also, I'm not leaving you here alone with Peter."

"Good idea." Isaac nodded in approval, digging his phone out of his closet. He had five missed text messages and two missed calls from Derek.

Derek - Bank went south. Boyd and Cora loose. Scott and I need help. I'm coming to get you.

Derek - Isaac why aren't you answering your phone?

Derek - I'll be there in five minutes. Be ready.

Derek - This is annoying the hell out of me

Derek - NO SEX DURING THE FULL MOON

"Um...who's Cora?" He asked, stuffing his phone into his pocket so that he could find something to wear before Derek came back.

"She's Derek's sister." Peter was standing in the doorway, looking at the three teenagers before him. "I thought...she died in the fire." He admitted quietly, showing a rare sign of vulnerability.

"She and Boyd haven't been exposed to the full moon in months. They're going insane. They'll kill anything that they find." Stiles explained, tapping his foot impatiently while he waited for Carmen to get her things together. "That's why Derek needs your help with them. He and Scott might not be enough to hold them back." He looked up at Isaac, who was wrapping a scarf around his neck.

"Wait, they're loose?" Carmen stared at him, completely slack-jawed. "As in like loose and running around Beacon Hills loose?"

Isaac's phone started to buzz in his pocket and he knew that meant Derek was waiting for him outside. He put his coat on and hugged Carmen tightly before quickly meeting her lips with his. "Stiles, keep her safe." He looked over at him, making sure that the message was loud and clear. "If anything happens to her, I'll—"

"Yeah, yeah. I know the drill. Don't worry, I got it." He nodded, watching as Isaac took one last glance at his girlfriend before he ran past Peter and out of the loft. He rushed Carmen down the stairs once he saw that she had her purse slung over her shoulder and he opened the door for her on the way out. "Just a disclaimer, there's a body."

"I've seen dead bodies before." Her voice was soft and gentle, but the story behind her words wasn't.

This chapter's song was "Pink Bullets" by the Shins.

I finally got you guys a quick update! And thanks to everyone who reviewed on the last chapter because I got some really good feedback on things.